“No secret, no stone,” Leon said airily, shrugging his shoulders and I growled.
“We need that stone. I’ll just tell Gabriel to take it from you,” I said and Leon gasped, holding his hand to his chest in offence.
“You wouldn’t,” he hissed.
“I would. It’s either that or you hand it over.” I held out my palm and Leon looked conflicted, still holding onto it tight.
“I want your Ryan Luxian Pitball League card,” he changed tact.
“That’s a collectible,” I said in frustration, not to mention the guy had been my favourite player growing up.
“It’s that or I’m gonna swallow it and you can dig it out of my poop.” Leon held the stone to his open mouth in a threat and I cursed.
“Fine,” I huffed. “You can have the card, just give me the stone.”
“Sure.” Leon slipped it into his pocket. “We can make the trade later.”
I growled and he grinned at me.
“Can I have this hat?” Seth asked and we turned, finding him wearing a ridiculous red cowboy hat with leather tassels hanging from it. “I’ve always fancied myself as a hat person.”
“You look ridiculous,” Caleb said with a snort.
“Sure, man,” Leon said easily.
“How come he doesn’t have to dig it out of your poop because he’s not giving you anything for it?” I tossed at him.
“Don’t be such a sourpuss, shamesy,” Leon said, slinging an arm around me. “You’re still my favourite.” He licked my face. “Oh wow, you can really taste the shame on you.” He licked me again. “It’s like cinnamon and failed dreams.”
“Alright, back it up, Lion,” I warned, bitter over the shamesy comment and not thrilled about the saliva either.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to shame you, shamesy,” he murmured like he really was sorry, though calling me shamesy wasn’t exactly helping his case. “I think you could bottle it as a scent actually, it’s kind of alluring. You could call it eau de toi-regret.”
“Thanks,” I said dryly. “I’ll do that once I’ve finished setting up my own failed dreams clothing line.”
“I think you’re really onto something here, Lance,” Leon said seriously. “You could sell it to all the other losers. There’s not many as shameful as you, but you could expand into washouts, has-beens and even junkie deadbeats.”
“I can’t wait,” I said hollowly.
We headed out of the trove and Leon locked up the door tight as Seth toyed with the tassels hanging from his new hat and Caleb shook his head at him with a smile dancing around his lips.
A scuttling sounded somewhere above us and I glanced up at the pipes winding overhead, glancing at Caleb to confirm he’d heard it too. I flexed my hand, bringing magic to my fingertips as we pressed on, the scuttling carrying off somewhere ahead of us.
We rounded the next corner and Seth howled in fright. “Holy mother of an eight legged cunt!”
My eyes fell on the enormous gnarla spider blocking our exit, its white eyes flashing our way and its huge hairy legs scuttling forward, its pincers snapping and a horrible grunting noise coming from it.
Caleb charged forward and punched it in the face with a flaming fist, sending it flying backwards with the force of his Order. The spider righted itself and I gasped as I noticed more climbing the walls and the click of spiny legs hitting the floor behind us made me twist around.
“Don’t let them bite you,” I called. “Their venom will make your lungs burst.”
“Ahhh!” Seth charged into battle, blasting one spider into the water with his air magic and I took on the one in front of me, casting a spear of ice in my hand and launching it towards its head with precision. It slammed into its ugly face and it screeched as it died, but another took its place in an instant.
Leon hurried forward at my side, sending a blaze of fireballs flaring down the tunnel, the heat of his power warming my cheeks as the spiders scurried away from his flames while others were consumed in the blaze.
I knocked another one of the beasts down into the water with a gust of air while Caleb burned a path right through them.
“Go!” Cal roared and I grabbed Leon, throwing him over my shoulder as Caleb grabbed hold of Seth and we shot away as Seth shouted, “Yee-ha!”
We made it back to the ladder as the sound of the scuttling monsters chased us and I sped up the rungs, shoving the drain cover open at the top as I climbed out.